A district court dismissed groups' lawsuit challenging BLM's approval of a 370-megawatt utility-scale solar power plant currently under construction in the Mojave Desert. BLM's decision to consider cumulative impacts within a single EIS was not arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or other...
The Ninth Circuit, in an unpublished opinion, affirmed in part and reversed in part a lower court decision denying an environmental group's motion to preliminarily enjoin a BLM-approved timber sale. The district court did not abuse its discretion by ruling that the group failed to raise serious ques...
The Ninth Circuit held that BLM's resource management plan (RMP) for the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument complied with NEPA and the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA) but violated the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA). The RMP, which authorizes roads, airstrips, and...
A district court held that the U.S. Forest Service complied with NEPA when it promulgated the land and resource management plan (LRMP) for the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest in Montana. The forest, the state's largest, covers 3.35 million acres and stretches over eight counties in southwestern...
The Ninth Circuit upheld rules DOI and USDA issued in 1999 that implement part of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) concerning subsistence fishing and hunting rights. In Alaska v. Babbitt, 72 F.3d 698 (9th Cir. 1995) (Katie John I), the court held that because Congress inc...
A district court dismissed environmental groups' claims that BLM failed to adequately consider climate change, global warming, and greenhouse gases (GHGs) in violation of NEPA before it approved oil and gas leases on federal land in Montana in 2008 and 2010. The groups argued that BLM's failure to f...
The D.C. Circuit held that a power company may not appeal a lower court decision that USDA's Rural Utilities Service violated NEPA before granting approvals and financial assistance to the company's expansion of its coal-fired power plant. An environmental group filed suit against the Service for fa...
The D.C. Circuit denied petitions for review challenging NRC's issuance of a combined license to construct and operate two new units at the Vogtle Nuclear Power Plant in Georgia as well as its approval of an amended design for a nuclear power plant reactor on which the Vogtle application relied. Env...
The Sixth Circuit struck down the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' reissuance of nationwide permit 21, which authorizes surface coal mining operations to discharge dredged and fill material into waters of the United States. An environmental group challenged the permit, alleging that the cumulative-impa...